Some Insites Into a Secret US Radar Spy Satellite

I've heard talk about it for a while, but this is the most I've seen in terms of public hard facts.

Of interest is how the name describes the vehicle. The antenna does resemble the business end of a Lacrosse stick.

Russian Telescope Images Top-Secret NRO Lacrosse (Subscription Required)
Aviation Week & Space Technology
07/09/2007, page 28

Craig Covault
Cape Canaveral

Top-secret U.S. space-based radar imaged by Russian telescope

Printed headline: Lacrosse Revealed

After 20 years of secrecy, the overall design of the 15-ton U.S. National Reconnaissance Office Lacrosse space-based radar and its remarkable 25-ft.-dia. imaging radar antenna are revealed in images of Lacrosse-2 at 400 mi. altitude taken by a Russian military ground-based telescope.

The images (above) were taken by a 28-channel adaptive optical system at the Russian Altay Laser/Optical Center. The site is one of several operated by the Science Research Institute for Precision Instrument Engineering. The line-of-sight distance from the Russian optics to the Lockheed Martin Lacrosse was more than 500 mi.



Views taken by a Russian ground-based telescope of a 15-ton NRO Lacrosse space-based imaging radar satellite reveal its secret 25-ft. mesh synthetic aperture radar antenna, developed by Harris Corp. near Cape Canaveral.Credit: RUSSIAN SCIENCE RESEARCH INSTITUTE FOR PRECISION INSTRUMENT ENGINEERING

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No unclassified imagery of a complete Lacrosse has ever been released by the NRO in nearly 20 years of radar satellite operations. The design matches the drawing at center. Credit: CHARLES P. VICK/GLOBALSECURITY.ORG
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